Feel like you are riding at Winter XGames 15

I have been playing with the little GoPro Hero cams for about a year now. They really are cool for alternate shots and rider perspectives. You wan to know what I mean? Well, check these two on board rides with their team rider, Eric Willet, at both the big air and slopestyle warm ups at this year's Winter XGames 15.

Pretty seeek mate!

Who says surfing girls aren't hot?

Alana Blanchard (Photo: Rip Curl)

I often get told that there are no good looking ladies in surfing - I know it sounds ridiculous, but there is the feeling amongst some. So to completely dispell that notion once and for all, check out this video from the guys at Stab Magazine, featuring Alana Blanchard and Bruna Schmitz. Both ladies rip, are on tour and smoking hot! Nuff Said!

Snowboarding gets reinvented - Winter XGames 15

Just when you thought snowboarding had hit a plateau as far as progression goes, along comes Winter XGames 15. The sales line for the Games was, "You haven't seen everything!" How right they were. This year the guys took it to new heights, led up front by the man previously known as the Flying Tomato, he now goes by the moniker - The Dark Knight. Shaun White led the charge taking his four-peat in the Superpipe and blowing minds on route to doing it. He was running a 19ft Straight air out of the pipe straight into a double cork that defied description.Then, just to ensure he was winning, he busts out a double Mactwist -WTF!

Ok, so our minds are blown, lets take a breather and head over to the Big Air event. Nothing to exciting going on - oh shit, is that Torstein Horgmo trying a triple cork? He eats absolute crap, gets up and heads back up for another run, then lands the craziest air ever - I mean ever! The definition of impossible no longer exists.



My hands are shaking right now! What's next?

The retro love just keeps pouring in!

So the love keeps pouring in from the Rolling Retro with RVCA and Vudu Surf event. I am quite speechless to be honest. Working on the video and should have some pretty moving pictures for you early next week. In the meantime check out these awesome action shots from Pierre Marqua from Wavescape and Ian Thurtel who shot the water pics.

One of the local Groms charging an old Country Rhythm!

Mike Grendon Soul Arching - The Oom would be so proud.

Jordy Smith doing his "Marc Wright" impersonation - just missing the shaka!

Motley Crew?

Mr Price Pro upgrades to Prime Status in 2011

Just as I was starting to think competitive surfing in South Africa could not climb out of its self imposed depression, this little chunk of news hit my inbox and made me smile. South african surfers need more points available to them in local events in order to enable them to make a go at the World Tour. Now, lets hope O"Neill will follow suit with the Cold Water Classic event in Cape Town. Well done to Mr Price and the guys from the ASP. Their press release below.

Jordy has even more reason to defend his title in 2011 (Photo: ASP)

(Thursday, January 27, 2011) – South African surfing has received a massive boost with the announcement that the Mr Price Pro Ballito will be a Prime rated event on the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour.
The 12th edition of the event, which has continued the proud tradition of the long running Gunston 500, will be staged at the premium surf breaks in Ballito on the KwaDukuza coastline North of Durban from 4 to 10 July.
Offering a huge prize-purse of US $250 000 (approx. R1.7 million), with $40 000 and an invaluable 6 500 points on the ASP World Tour Rankings going to the winner, the elite 96-man field for the Mr Price Pro Ballito is guaranteed to include the majority of the world’s best competitive surfers.
“Our commitment to surfing in South Africa has grown continually since the inaugural Mr Price Pro in 2000 and so too have our relationships with the Association of Surfing Professionals and our event partner, the KwaDukuza Municipality,” said Mr Price Group CEO, Stuart Bird.
“Upgrading the Mr Price Pro Ballito to a PRIME ASP World Tour event will attract the top 96 surfers in the world to the event and we will once again have the privilege of watching the world’s best competing against our top South African talent.”
ASP International is equally excited with the upgrade of the Mr Price Pro Ballito and the boost it will provide to the South African surfing community.
“ASP has enjoyed an excellent relationship with Mr Price over the past decade and we’re thrilled with the event’s upgrade to an ASP Prime event,” Brodie Carr, ASP International CEO, said. “South Africa has long been a major player in the world surfing community and the Mr Price Pro will continue to be a major stepping stone in the development of young surfers onto the world stage.”

Our surfers need to compete with the best on home turf (Photo: ASP)

Current ASP World No. 2 and Durban local Jordy Smith, who last year became only the third South African to win the country’s longest running professional surfing, will be back to defend his title.
“Winning a world title will always remain my main focus on the ASP World Tour, however, one always wants to revert back to their roots and that’s why the Mr Price Pro Ballito is so special to me. The Mr Price Pro was my first ever WQS event, at the age of 12, and my mom even has a pic of me standing proudly next to the pier with my contest vest on,” Smith explained.
“Over the years I came close to winning the title and then last year I managed to win. It was such a brilliant feeling with the home crowd and my family there to cheer me on. I’m hoping to be back on the podium again this year but it’s going to be much harder now that the event has been granted PRIME status.”
The importance of the Mr Price Pro Ballito is enhanced by the fact that it will be the seventh of just 12 Prime rated events on the 2011 ASP World Tour. The points earned in Ballito count towards the mid-season rotation when the top 34 surfers on the ASP World Tour Rankings become the field for the remaining five ASP Dream Tour events of the year.
All the action will be webcast LIVE at www.mrpricepro.com
For more information, log onto www.aspworldtour.com

Retro Revalution - the surf comp that changed perception!

Classic Boards from Vudu Surf (Photo: Stix)

The new School of Llandudno go old School. (Photo: Stix)

It’s been an emotional three days for me, since we had the Retro contest on Sunday. The amount of positive messages and feedback, have been simply amazing. We started the event, because we wanted to bring back what was good and pure in surfing – the Stoke! No judges, results or competition, as Andrew “Roosta” Lange stated, we took the Con out of Contest. The result was one of the most enjoyable days on the beach, probably since the seventies hey day of hippy vans, mind enhancing narcotics and free love.

The Boys were having fun. (Photo: Surfers against Shark Cage Diving)

What was the point, one could be forgiven for asking – I mean what’s the point of a contest that has no results, does that not make it redundant? Simply put that’s right, but we wanted people to come down and enjoy a surf session with total strangers, not to compete, but to actually enjoy surfing together. We wanted people to experience the joy of riding a piece of surfing history, that rides totally different to the super expensive, light weight pocket rocket they surf normally. To just for a moment enjoy the same feeling a living legend like the Oom Whitfield, Johnny Paarman or Shaun Thompson felt on one of their surfboards from the 60’s, 70‘s and 80’s.

Roosta cross stepping where most are running. (Photo: Winston Kletter)

The God of surfing must have blessed us, because the howling, raging South Easter backed off, the supposed to be Flat Ocean was delivering perfect little 2-3ft peaks and over a 1000 people made the most of the idyllic day. “Well done man! I just called Spider and the boys back in Durban and told them today makes me feel like I am back at the old events at the Bay of Plenty!” some swarthy father of a local Grom tells me. It warms my heart. “That was the most fun session in ages!” local ripper, Michael February shouts with joy as he returns his board after the heat. Everywhere I looked on Sunday, people with silly grins, bright loud retro outfits and the sound of laughter met my eyes. The bar ran out of beer three times – it was exceedingly hot and thirsty work having so much fun – and even this was met by a shrug of the shoulders and the sight of men drinking pink fruit mixers instead. Ladies in bikinis were everywhere.

The Lawn was busy! (Photo: Stix)

Surfing wise the crowd got to enjoy some of SA’s top surfers caning it on retro boards. Jordy Smith, Royden Bryson and Michael February, the contest machines, were joined by big wave legends such as Mickey Duffus and Mikey Schlebach. Local rippers like Liam “Yeti” Wood and Logan Eales showed the crew how barrels get ridden in the Gat. The girls were going hard – local lifeguard Kirsten Kingma surfing her heat in a Bikini, real old school style even with the 10-degree water temperature. Roosta was not to be outdone at his own sponsor event and made one of the most ridiculous tail drop board shuffles ever seen. The Kat would have been proud!

Jordy, Roosta and Twig jammin retro. (Photo: Stix)

jordy taking a retro board to new places, Pottz would be proud. (Photo: Winston Kletter)

Once it was time to reward the masses for their participation, every single entrant won a prize, from t-shirts, to deck grip, from ladies underwear to ding repair kits. Best wave of the day went to the Fool himself, Michael Grendan, who popped up from the deep south of Scar Barbaria to educate all of us on what is possible on an old, aircraft carrier of a John Whitmore surfboard. He won a collector’s “Life of LLandudno” book in honor of his skills. We had prizes for best retro wetsuit and board, won by stunning local girls, who refused to let the boys dominate proceedings.

The Fool took the best wave award! (Photo: Stix)

After the dust settled the bar took off with music from the local patch surfers. Twiggy poured the tequila, the bands jammed hard and we danced our feet off and away, like the carefree hippies of yesteryear. The day was done and we had just for a moment got rid of all the modern day worries and complexities, replaced instead with good vibes, good times and retro vibrations.

Captain Kai

Big thanks to RVCA, Vudu Surf, Roosta, Robby MacDonald, Debi Shabason, Sally Berold, Andrew Black, Gavin Wright, Hurricane, Llandudno Lifesaving, Pull In Underwear, Reef Wetsuits, Suikerbossie, Carey Ann, Wet Sack, the musicians and theGoodLife. If I forgot anyone, please forgive me - Everyone who came or was involved deserves a prize! ;)


Everyone was a winner, but the official prizes were:

Best wave - Michael "Fool" Grendon - for a long barrel on a old John Whitmore beast.
Runners up - Liam "Yeti" Wood and Sean Gibson, also for tubes.

Best retro wetsuit - Amy Kins

Best retro bikini - Leonie von Hase

Best retro boards - Robby MacDonald for the best collection in SA!

The "Official" Red Bull Nightshift Video

The "official" NightShift Video. Bloody Awesome work guys!

South African Surfing's Next Gen - Shaun Joubert

Ok, so we have the World Number 2 in surfing and there can be no doubt that sooner or later Jordy is going to be Number 1. But what comes after, in fact, who comes after? In 2010 we had three surfers finish in the top 16 of the ASP World Junior Tour. Dale Staples finished in third giving him a massive boost for his campaign on the World Tour this year with top seeding in the ASP Prime 6 stars. Tied for 16th were Shaun Joubert and Chad Du Toit.

Shaun mixes Power and Flair. (Photo: SJ)

Having watched Shaun surf for many years in and around the Southern Cape, I have always admired his surfing. Even as a Grom he wanted to put his board on a rail, a trait of old school power surfing that any potential world champion is going to need. Mixed with this is the ability to throw down new school, progressive tricks and airs - an ability that all three of these juniors have in bucket loads. These are the next generation of World Tour campaigners. They are the guys who are going to be Jordy's support act in the next few years. I caught up with Shaun Joubert to get the lowdown on our Next Gen.

Carbo Loading? (Photo: SJ)

Kai) What is the vibe in Junior surfing right now?

Shaun) The vibe is amazing. Everyone is surfing so good, really progressive. Everyone is trying to out do each other. It’s really competitive, but in a good way. I’m really glad to be a part of it.

Kai) We only have 1 surfer on the World tour this year, yet we had 3 surfers in the top 16 of the junior world tour, with a few more in the top 100. Do you think this will turn around into more SA surfers on the pro tour soon?

Shaun) Definitely. I think our surfers are good enough to be on the World Tour. It is really hard to qualify, but I believe we have what it takes to make it on to the tour.

Kai) Your self, Dale Staples and Chad Du Toit all gave the junior tour a good go in 2010. Whats the plan for 2011?

Shaun) I am hitting the WQS full time, making a real push to be on the WCT. I’m really looking forward to it, because I will be traveling with Dale, he always pushes me to be better. I can’t wait for it to all to get started!

Kai) Is the local junior tour in good shape?

Shaun) It’s not really my place and I am not in the Juniors anymore, but it would be really nice if we have more events. Like Australia has 12 events or something, that’s why they are so prepared when they hit the WQS. It’s hard though, with surfing being so small in South Africa.

Kai) The local PST tour is in a shambles. What do you think needs to be done to save the local tour and improve our surfers chances overseas?

Shaun) That’s a hard one. I really don’t know. Like I said, surfing is small in South Africa, which makes it really hard. I reckon outside sponsors - massive companies like Coca-Cola, Vodacom and those companies need to get involved.

Kai) Can Jordy win the World Title in 2o11?

Shaun) For sure. He is my pick for the 2011 World Title. He surfs so good, wow. It would be amazing for him to win. I really hope he does. Him and Dane are on another level. He would be the sickest World Champ. I hope he does, seriously.

Kai) Your favorite surf spot and why?

Shaun) Kerammas in Bali, because when there is swell it’s the best barrel, and when it’s smaller it’s the funnest wave ever. It’s a Forehander's dream.

Thanks Shaun!

You can follow Shaun on his travels on Tour here - Shaun Joubert

A sick little surf video for you to check:

SA will qualify for World Snowboard Champs today - Go Marta Jekot

At 2pm today, Euro time, our good mate and super style bandit, Marta "Smarta" Jekot, will be competing in the qualification round of the Slopestyle World Champs, being held in La Molina, Spain. This is a massive boost for SA snowboarding as she could be our first ever finalist at a World Champs in snowboarding.

That is one large Slopestyle Course!

Our man at the top, Olly, head of Snowboarding SA, sent us the following message from the slopes:

Hey Guys,

Today at 2pm is Mawa’s qualification run for the World Snowboard Champs and she’s riding in bib 2 in a field of 28 women. Our Afro-Molina jokes have died down because the weather turned and the temp will be around -16C with winds of up to 65km/h today which isn’t great for Mawa who must face quiet a gnarly slopestyle course as it is.

Win, draw or lose, today’s qualifiers are going to be an exciting day for us. We are waving the only African flag at the comp which is dominated by European and American riders. It’s also a bit nail biting for slopestyle itself because this whole format will also be under review by an Olympic panel to see if it’s worth introducing as a new Olympic discipline. Personally it’s also feels quiet good because we stand here on the shoulders of a really big and passionate effort of many of you guys at home and it’s good to be reminded that passion and hope still flow.

Mawa has shown big heart and composure to roll into this course in Spain because its pretty woes. This event was unexpected and not part of the plan but we’ve also got a great coach in  Iztok who gave her a motivational talk last night that nearly had me strapping on a board to show the sceptics that Africa can compete in snow !

Hold thumbs for Mawa and I’ll get back to you once the craziness is over and we know how today went.

Oliver

Marta Stylin at practice!

If you wanna send Marta some love and support, check her website - Marta Jekot

And on facebook -  http://www.facebook.com/amasmarties?sk=info

Go SMARTY!!!!!!!

Eddie did not go - Waimea called off at last minute.

So turns out the swell of the decade decided to be the almost swell of the decade and hundreds of people who made their way to the North Shore were left heartily dissapointed. Oh well, that's the whole point of this event, if it is not ball numbingly scary, over 20ft, monster waves, Eddie would not have paddled and neither will the contestants. There is always next year.

Plenty of people, not enough big sets. (Photo: ASP)

The ASP released the following:

WAIMEA BAY, Oahu/Hawaii – (Thursday, January 20, 2011) – George Downing, Contest Director of The Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau, Fueled by Monster Energy, has called a “NO GO” for competition at Waimea Bay today, based upon the inconsistency of the swell. While there were definitely 20-foot-plus waves sporadically throughout the morning, the consistency of those large waves was deemed to be insufficient to run the two rounds of competition. The event still has until February 28 to run.
“What we see in conditions like this is just one or two true ‘Eddie’ size waves in the period of a heat,” said Downing. “With seven surfers in the water per heat, that is not the kind of playing field we need for quality, fair competition.
“It’s very easy to get caught up in the excitement when those huge waves come through and after all of the efforts of the crew and the spectators to be ready for this day. But what keeps this event the greatest big wave event in the world is never relaxing those standards. Eddie never did.
“We will continue to wait. The holding period runs through February 28 and we know that there is definite potential in the coming weeks for more extra large surf to arise. If that day comes, we will be ready to go again.”
The 15,000-strong crowd that had gathered under moonlight since the very early hours of the morning understood the call and settled in for the day, regardless. With the world’s best big wave riders making the most of the opportunity to put some time in at Waimea, they will be treated to spectacular rides throughout the day, without question.
2002 Eddie winner and 10X world champion Kelly Slater was in firm agreement with the decision: “It’s a good call,” said Slater. “There are big waves out there, but there’s not that many of them. It’s not what we need.”
Mahalo to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, and the City & County of Honolulu for their cooperation and support in bringing today together.
The Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau is the world’s longest running and most prestigious big-wave invitational and is the only one sanctioned by the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), the governing body of professional surfing.